Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of communication networks. More particularly, the present invention relates to the sending or the receiving of data including pieces of data.
Description of Related Art
A communication network usually includes at least one server and clients connected to the server. In such a communication network, the server stores data in a repository memory. The server can send such data to the clients when requested to do so. Usually, the data include pieces of data. The server can send one piece of data at a time via a cache memory of the repository, upon requests of clients. Data transmission is mentioned in documents such as U.S. Pat. No. 6,374,254 and U.S. Patent Publication No. 2007/0174873. Cache memory is mentioned in documents such as U.S. Patent Publication No. 2009/0187713 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,143,143.
The use of a cache is not entirely efficient, especially when the network includes a large number of clients and/or the data is large and include many pieces of data. Thus, there can be a long delay in receiving the whole data for clients.
Accordingly, streaming solutions have been developed. Namely, pieces of data are copied as they are required. Streaming is mentioned in different publications, such as “OS Streaming Deployment” by D. Clerc, L. Garcés-Erice, and S. Rooney in Proceeding of IPCCC'10, “New insights on internet streaming and iptv” by Z. Xiao and F. Ye in Proceedings CIVR'08, U.S. Patent Publication No. 2009/0199175, U.S. Patent Publication No. 2010/0306399, and U.S. Patent Publication No. 2010/0325410. Furthermore, other solutions are presented in documents U.S. Pat. No. 7,398,382 and WO 2009/042327. However, these solutions can still be improved.
There is a thus a need for an improved solution for transmitting data on a communication network.